Judi Dench Reveals Her Strange Phobia

For some it’s spiders, for others it’s ‘coulrophobia’ – the contentious fear of clowns – but Dame Judi Dench has revealed that she has her own irrational fear… and it’s a rather unorthodox one.

“I have always had a terrible fear of a lot of schoolchildren together,” she told an audience at the Cheltenham Literature Festival.

“I don’t know why but I just have.”

- Léa Seydoux to be Bond 24’s femme fatale
- London Film Festival: 10 Amazing Films
- Rihanna rumoured for Bond 24

She was talking at the time about when she filmed the movie adaptation of Zoe Heller’s novel ‘Notes On A Scandal’, during which, she said, she ‘played a complete monster with Cate Blanchett’.

Though she added that she had a ‘wonderful time’ making the movie, her apprehension almost got the better of her.

“On my very first day playing this rather difficult part, I was confronted by a whole school of children. I was absolutely petrified,” she went on.

“We used several of them in the film. They all turned out to be absolutely wonderful – completely committed and enthusiastic and interesting to talk to and interested in what we were doing.

“To some extent I got over my fear.”

Her other most frightening experience, she shared, was performing at the BBC Proms in 2010, when she sang ‘Send In The Clowns’ as part of the celebration of Stephen Sondheim’s 80th birthday.

But the 79-year-old veteran actress added that because her eyesight is now failing, due to macular degeneration, that luckily she couldn’t see much of the crowd.

“A more frightening experience I have yet to have,” she said. “Fortunately now I can’t see very clear. I used to be able to see every member of the audience and exactly what they were doing.

“I can’t do that anymore which in a way is a wonderful blessing. I didn’t realise it was a blessing until I went on that night at the Proms. There was like a sea of corn in front of me and I looked up and thought, ‘there’s nobody upstairs’.”

Image credits: PA/Fox/BBC

- Classic Movie Scenes You Never Realised Were Rip-Offs
- 25 Years Of Doc Brown Cameos 
- Why Gotham Could Be Batman’s Game Of Thrones